Terminal Love
by CrystalClear98
Summary: Macey Jones is terminally ill with an unknown disease. Then she gets attempted kidnapped and put in protective custody. And her list of things to do before she dies goes out the window. But she finds something better. Love, in the most unlikely of places. Bruce/OC rated T 'cause I'm paranoid!
1. Chapter 1

**Okay hope you like this first chapter!**

Chapter one- Kidnap Attempt

Looking up at the huge building I had to admit, it was quite impressive. But it held no beauty to me, it was simply another hospital, another attempt to find out what was killing me.

An hour later I was sat on the edge of the white hospital bed looking at another doctor who was supposed to be one of the best. And he was telling me the same as all the others had.

"I'm so sorry Macey. I don't know what's killing you. I can't find anything wrong with your organs, cells, even your brain scans came back normal. Your blood samples came negative for cancer or any other terminal illness." Another disappointment. Leaving the hospital I thought about what my councillor had said to me, "Live now while you still can. Make a list of all the things you want to do before you die, and do them." Jenna had been a councillor, kind, genuine, unlike so many of the others who hadn't really cared about anything except their silly lives. _Oh well_, I thought to myself as I took out that list.

Maybe I should explain. My name is Macey Jones. I am terminally ill with an invisible disease. I've been to doctors all over the world and they've all said the same thing. There doesn't appear to be anything wrong with me. Except the fact that I was slowly dying, of course. Most of my family ignored my existence, my brother was the exception to the rule. He told me once that the others ignored me because they didn't want to hurt when I died. Hard as it may seem, I understood there reasons. Looking at the list I saw that the first one was something do-able.

- Shop in New York

Very do-able, considering I was already in New York. So off I went, I didn't see anything worth buying though. And then I was in this huge square and people were crowding around to see something. I craned my head to get a better look. It was the Avengers, and somebody else. I knew who it was instantly from watching the news report on the Manhattan incident. Loki. Then they started fighting and everyone started running, but I hung back. I figured I wouldn't see many fight scenes like this one, specially seeing as I didn't have much of my life left. I leant against a building in the shadows and watched. It was quite cool actually, much better than the cinema. But then Loki caught sight of me, and smirked. Suddenly he was right in front of me staring me in the eye. Before I even thought about running he had me in a head lock and was backing away from the Avengers.

"I'm leaving now, try to stop me and I'll kill her." I could hear the smirk in his voice. Bastard. I wasn't really afraid of death, I'm pretty sure it showed in my face to 'cause the Avengers looked slightly puzzled at my lack of screaming. I didn't really think about what I was doing to be honest with you. I just sort of rammed my elbow in the Loki's stomach and whilst he was weakened by the shock I ran to the side so that the Avengers could get him.

When he was all handcuffed and muzzled they came up to me.

" Wow you have no fear." It was Iron Man who was talking, he looked quite impressed actually, they probably didn't get many damsels in distress who fought back. I shrugged.

" I'm not really afraid of death to be honest with you." They looked confused at that. Then the Black Widow said,

"Look, I'm afraid we're gonna have to bring you in, you need to be debriefed." She looked all apologetic. Then I realized they hadn't got the meaning behind my words. Hell I was up for being debriefed any day of the week, I'm pretty sure it was on my list. So I nodded and they took me to Stark Tower where a guy in an eye patch was waiting.

"I saw what happened out there. Your one brave person you know that?" He said, he sounded really genuine, but I didn't think what I had done was brave. It was just an action. A pretty stupid one too. I said as much.

"Look your gonna have to stay here for a while because there's no-one here to debrief you at the moment- what?" Hawkeye looked at my angry expression, puzzled. They didn't get that they were holding up my time.

"Look can I just go now 'cause I have some things I wanna do?"

"What's the rush? You got the rest of your li.." I lost it, I practically screeched at the guy.

"I'm dying! I have 3 weeks left to live! So if you don't mind I'd like to go now!" I turned to leave but Tony Stark spoke.

"Why didn't you get chemo?"

"Because I don't have cancer!"

"Then what do you have?" Hawkeye had chipped in.

"I don't know..." I would have carried on speaking but my legs suddenly gave way beneath me. I collapsed to the floor. I knew it was best not to try to stand up just yet, I did that once, I broke my ankle, extreme agony for an entire week. I wouldn't be getting up for a while.

"Oh my god are you okay?" There was an unfamiliar voice beside me and when I turned to look I saw it was guy with brown hair and brown eyes flecked with illuminous green. He was cute.

"Ummm yeah, I'll be fine but I can't get up for a minute or so."

"Why not?"

"Well it's part of my disease. Sometimes my legs just give way and if I try to stand up I'll break my ankle again."

"Oh." He looked at Tony, Hawkeye and Black Widow for any more information, but they were just as shocked as he was.

"Look I'm Bruce, this is Natasha, Clint and, well, I'm gonna guess you know who this guy is?" he was so _sweet_… oh my god! Snap out of it girl! But he's kinda _gorgeous_…. Oh I had fallen deep….

"Look you're gonna have to stay here for a while okay? I'm really sorry about this but you just have to okay?" Tony was looking sympathetic as he stood and left the room, followed by Clint and Natasha.

"Here let me take you to a room."

And with that he scooped me up and carried me out of the room and all I could think was, _Oh my god he's strong! _And then it hit me that the guy who was the Hulk was called Banner, Bruce Banner. And I didn't care.

**Tell me what you think and anyway I could improve!**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two- Falling Deeper

The rest of the afternoon went by in a blur. When I eventually got the feeling in my legs back I stood up and wandered around, getting a good look at the inside of Stark Tower. At one point I found myself in the kitchen and came face to face with Thor eating poptarts, he saw me and froze.

"Please don't tell Pepper I am eating her poptarts." He was practically begging me! I promised him I wouldn't tell her and wandered into the lounge area. Where, oh, my, god! I found Captain America struggling to figure out how to use a phone! He saw me and was just like,

"Oh hi... Do you know how to use one of these? I'm Steve."

"Sure thing. I'm Macey."

So I spent the rest of the afternoon teaching Steve how to use a phone. That is until we heard a commotion and Thor came running up yelling something about 'Loki' and 'Escaping'. Steve told me to go to my room as he rushed off to help save the world again. When the Avengers finally came back they looked exhausted. So I did what I always did when my flat mate came back from University looking like death. I cooked dinner. Of course, it took me a while to find anything other then poptarts, but eventually I found some spaghetti stuff. When I served them dinner they looked amazed. Then Steve laughed.

"It's been ages since we've had a home-cooked meal! Tony keeps ordering take-outs!" Tony was looking at his bowl in amazement. I thought he was gonna say something along the same lines as Steve, but when he finally looked up at me he just said,

"Where the hell did you find spaghetti sauce and pasta in between all the poptarts?"

Bruce just smiled at me and said,

"Thanks for cooking us some real food." Then they all started eating. Thor practically shovelled it down and asked for,

"Another!" We had to laugh at him.

Clint and Natasha exchanged looks and muttered something to Bruce. He looked uncomfortable, but then he nodded, sighed and looked at me.

"Look I'm really sorry about this but with Loki on the lose again, well it's not safe for you to leave Stark Tower."

"Why not?"

"Because you showed him up."

"I did?" Really? Little old me? Doesn't say much about his self-esteem does it?

"When you elbowed him, you're the reason he got caught. You, a random girl, held him up." Nice way of putting it Clint but okay.

"So you're saying he's gonna try to get back at me?"

"Yep, pretty much." I burst out laughing. They all looked at me like I was crazy. I probably was.

"Seriously! What's he gonna do? Kill me? I'm gonna die anyway and they say it'll probably be painful so he'd actually be a favour!" They all winced at my casual remark about dying. They left shortly after finishing eating, but Bruce stayed behind to help me clear up.

"You cooked, I'll wash." So whilst he washed up I talked. I him told about how no doctor could figure out why I was dying, how my family ignored me and about the things I wanted to do before I died. And he listened. Nobody but Jenna had ever listened to me the way he listened. Jenna had always said that I should confide in somebody other than her, that having somebody to talk to would help. And it did. A lot. It was when I collapsed after hopping down from the stool and he picked me up again that I realised why. He cared. Not many people had cared about me in my lifetime. So when he put me down on the bed I reached up and kissed him. And to my surprise he kissed me back.

**I know it's not a very long chapter but I had limited ideas for how to get them together. Please review! J**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter three- Live while you can

Bruce POV

I recently got a letter from Betty. She had married that shrink guy, they had a 2 year old son and were expecting a baby girl. Tony had seen the letter and had surprisingly been nice about it. He hadn't told the others, but he had said one thing, "You need to move on buddy. It's time to let go." He was right. I knew that. Maybe that's why, when she kissed me, I kissed her back. Then again maybe it was because I cared about her. Loved her. Her wild brown hair. Her green eyes that saw everything. Her way of living like there was no tomorrow. Her crazy attitude towards death. That habit of curling her hair around her fingers. I loved her.

Macey POV

I woke up next morning and practically skipped downstairs to breakfast, which I figured I would have to make. But it turns out somebody had beat me to it. Natasha was making what I guessed were pancakes, but they were nothing like the kind you'd want to eat. They were black, lumpy and smelled liked dead badger (don't ask, when in Britain, don't check to see if any animals at the side of the road are alive, they won't be and they smell bad).

"Natasha are you trying to make pancakes?"

"Umm yeah….. these look nothing like the ones in the recipe book though…"

"Did you add sugar?"

"Of course."

"How much flour did you add?" She pointed at the recipe book and when I saw what she was copying from I sighed and stifled a laugh.

"What the heck are you cooking from Natasha? _Cooking for Beginners_? You do know this is a joke book right?"

"I….. I knew that…." I sighed, rolled up my sleeves and got stuck in fixing the dead badger pancakes.

By the time the others had woken up and come downstairs Natasha was flipping pancakes like a pro. Clint looked mildly impressed. Thor looked like a child at Christmas. Tony was completely blahzay about it and got a pancake flipped in his face for his comment of, "I'd be more impressed if you were doing that with explosives Ginger Ninja." He would have got worse had I not intervened.

Later on I taught Steve and Thor how to use the computer, had I not have used every ounce of my patience I would have screamed. Seriously how long can it take for them to grasp how to turn it on?!

"So this little button turns it on?" Steve said pointing to the on/off button.

"And off."

"It turns it off?" Thor looked more confused than ever. I sighed.

"Yes but it also turns it on." I had lost Thor but Steve was catching up.

"Ooohhhh. It turns it on when it's off but when it's on and you press it, it turns it off?" Finally Steve was getting it! It took Thor another hour to get it though.

Next I wandered down a couple of levels and found Clint practicing archery. He offered to show me how to shoot straight, so me being…well me, said yes. Another 3 hours later I had been successful in shooting 20 straight arrows and Clint said,

"You'll be a pro in no time." Not true but still a nice comment. Then, since it was 12 o'clock we decided to go check out what was for lunch. As we were heading upstairs we ran into Natasha. They (Tony, Bruce and Natasha) had just come back from a tip off about Loki's location.

"Hey you need to see this." She spoke in such a grim manner that I knew it was not a good thing she had to show Clint and….me?

"Me too?" I asked, trying to sound up beat. She looked me up and down for a second, as though she were trying to figure out if I could take what they had to show us. Then she nodded.

"Yeah, you'd better come too."

Opening the door into some kind of conference room we walked in on complete and utter silence, which I guessed was a first since eye patch man was looking sorta shocked.

"Natasha why is Macey here?"

"Because I figured since this concerns her she should be present, sir." He sighed in a defeated way.

"Fine. I'm Director Fury, Macey. And you might wanna sit down for this." I sat. And shuffled about in my seat uncomfortably. Then some footage appeared on a screen that I hadn't even seen. It was Loki. He was jabbering on about how the Avengers were gonna pay for all the things they'd ever done to him and I was just like, _What has this got to with me? _Then he smirked and said.

"Oh and tell your new little pet that she will pay dearly for her part in the Avengers last victory." And then screen went black. My first thought was, _Why me? Seriously though, why me? Why is it always me who gets into these situations?_

I had seen Bruce stiffen at the words 'new little pet' and I knew that the Clint and Tony had too because I saw them exchange glances. I knew that the moment Fury left they would pounce on him about it. Poor Bruce. Poor, sweet, totally gorgeous Bruce.

"I'm so sorry Macey. You're gonna have to stay here for a little while longer. But on the upside I can teach you to throw knives." I liked Natasha a lot for that. I had a feeling we'd get along great.

"Uh huh. And imma teach ya how to blackmail people," Tony caught Fury's glare and quickly changed his sentence, "I mean _entertain _yourself and others….." I figured I was definitely gonna get along with Tony.

"Guess I'll have to make the best of it." They looked surprised at my optimism. "I'll just have to make the best of the situation won't I? I have to live while I can, 'cause I don't exactly have long do I?" My words silenced them and I knew I was right. As we left the room I knew I was right about something else to. Clint, Tony and Bruce were still in the conference room. And I had a feeling they were ruthlessly questioning him for information.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four- Here we go again

Macey POV

That week I taught Steve how to use household appliances, such as the toaster, kettle, hoover, etc., etc. I attempted to teach Thor how to use them too but had to give up due to stress issues. Natasha taught me how to shoot straight and throw knives, Clint carried on teaching me archery and Tony began teaching me how to hack into government files and blackmail people. I spent the evenings snuggled into Bruce whilst Tony insisted on making us watch movies and tried, unsuccessfully, to get Thor to eat popcorn instead of poptarts. Clint and Tony had bullied Bruce into telling them about our kiss, so now they all knew we were together, because Clint and Tony gossip like a couple of old women. I told them that to. But they just said,

"And proud!" Why did I bother?

Tony POV

They were happy. Thor could see it, and that's saying something. I was happy for them. Bruce had been down ever since he got that letter from his ex. Since Macey had come along he had sparkle in his eye. Clint and I had seen him when Loki had threatened her. You didn't have to be a genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist to know that the Hulk would kill anybody who even thought about hurting her. So when we got a hit on Loki he jumped at the chance to beat the crap out of the guy. We all did. That's why we left her alone.

Macey POV

"Be careful Bruce."

"Don't worry about me Macey. The other guy knows how to care of himself."

And then they were gone.

The moment I entered my room that night I got that creepy feeling down the back of my neck. The feeling of being watched. I spun round to fast, my legs gave way beneath me and I collapsed at his feet.

Loki POV

I almost laughed. How could this weak, little mortal have brought about my capture?

"Get up."

"I can't." Why did she continue to defy me?

"I said get up!"

"I can't!" She was telling the truth. How was that possible?

"And why not?"

"Because I don't feel like breaking my ankles today, that's why!" Now she was making absolutely no sense.

"Make sense little mortal! Or I shall kill you now!" Was she laughing at me?

Macey POV

"Go ahead." I had surprised him. I was pretty sure that that was not a particularly easy feat and at the back of mind I was like, _Oh my god look at his face! Haha he can't figure out why I'm not afraid of him!_

"Why are you not afraid of me?" It was taking all my strength not to laugh.

"Because I'm dying anyway. They say it'll probably be painful too so you might as well kill me and save me the pain." I maybe, shouldn't have said anything about saving me the pain, because he went into evil, creepy guy mode. He leaned towards me and said,

"And why would I save you the pain?" Why am such an idiot? I'd really put my foot in it this time. My last thought was, _Oh Bruce is gonna be soooo pissed off when he finds out…._And then my world went dark.

**Tell me what you think!**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five- The beginning of the end

Macey POV

When I woke up I was in a dark room that definitely had to be underground. The damp smell told me that much. I sat up and rubbed my head. Ow. I most definitely hit my head on something hard.

"Oh good, you're awake." Oh yay Loki was here. Let the fun begin. I stood up. Or rather tried to stand up, he kicked me in the stomach and I was knocked off of my feet into the wall.

"Have you heard of stoning?" Ah crap. That sure sounded painful.

"Yeah." He threw stone after stone at me. My head, my legs, my arms. By the time he left I was covered in blood and my only thought was, _Hurry up guys._

Bruce POV

Getting there and discovering nothing was bad. But getting back to the Tower and finding nothing was worse. Macey was gone. It had been a trick. I should have been there to protect her. I was so close to hulking out, that Tony had to hurry to tell me he had a plan.

Macey POV

He stepped into the room just as the commotion started above us. He ignored it, clearly thinking it was no problem.

"Do you still think they'll come and rescue you. They don't know where you are let alone how to save you." He taunted. Then came a familiar roar and I smirked. I pulled out a small tracking chip from my cleavage .

"Yep. I sure do." Then the wall on our left was smashed in and one _very _angry Hulk burst through. He picked Loki up and threw him through the gap in the wall. Then he turned towards me and suddenly it was Bruce standing there holding his pants up. _Wow. He has a really nice chest…_

"Oh my god! What the hell did he do to you?" He asked as he rushed towards me.

"Apparently it's called stoning…. Bruce has anyone ever told you that you have an extremely nice chest?" He laughed slightly and shook his head.

"Well then, now you have."

Narrative POV

Macey didn't like hospitals. She never had. They always had bad news. And she knew deep down, that this time the news would be terrible. So she begged them not to make her go there. Just to take her back to the Tower and rest. And they listened.

That last week was probably the most painful week for all of them. Watching Macey as her organs began to shut down. Watching Bruce slowly dying with her. And Tony blamed the only person he could think of.

"You son of bitch!" He yelled as he stalked up to Loki's cage, opened it and punched him in the face. "I hope you know that Bruce is super pissed off with for taking his girl!"

It took the rest of the Avengers and Pepper to drag him out of there and leave Loki alive.

* * *

"Get Bruce!" Natasha shouted down the hallway. Bruce came running to Macey's side.

"I love you." She whispered.

"And I love you too." Bruce whispered, choking back tears.


	6. The Funeral

The Funeral

Bruce was sat in the front row with Macey's family. They were ignoring his existence. They were to busy grieving them to notice his grief stricken face. Although one woman did give him a pack of pocket tissues.

The rest of the Avengers were sat at the back of the church. Trying to keep it together. Then the service began. It was a normal service, until the very end.

"Now I believe a Tony Stark has something to add before we depart." The priest looked at ony, who was hurrying towards the front.

"Macey gave me this letter a couple of days before she died. She said to me, "Don't let the others know you have it. But read it at my funeral. Please." So here I am, and here it is. 'List of things I want to do before I die.' One, Shop in New York. Two, Drink tequila. Three, Say hi to my family for the first time in years. Four, Tell my family I love them. Five, Bungee jump. Six, Sky dive. Seven, Climb a mountain. Eight, Go paragliding. Nine, Adopt a snow leopard. Ten, Fall in love.

I didn't do many of those things. But I did things that were just as good, if not better. One, Get attempted kidnapped by a total psycho. Two, Met the Avengers. Three, Discovered some pretty top secret shit. Four, Learned how to throw knives. Five, Learned how to do archery. Six, Learned how to blackmail people. Seven, Got kidnapped by the same psycho who failed the first time. Eight, Learned what stoning _really _means. Nine, tried to teach Steve and Thor how to use electronic devices (and failed). And ten, Fell in love with a guy with crazy anger issues.

Dear Clint, Open up your heart. You never know what might happen. You don't have long in life, so plunge in while you still can. And thanks for teaching me archery. And remember, it's okay to cry.

Dear Natasha, Life's a rollercoaster, follow it, see where it takes you. And remember, it's better to have loved and lost then to never have loved at all. Thanks for teaching me to throw knives, and for being my friend. It's okay to cry sometimes to.

Dear Steve, Try using electronic devices more often. And stop living in the past. You can't change it. So live in the present. She'd want you to.

Dear Thor, Avoid electronic devices. I left you loads of boxes of poptarts, their under my bed. And maybe you ask her, before you jump to conclusions about her answer.

Dear Tony, Thanks for being my friend. Thanks for letting me confide-" Tony trailed off, sniffled and wiped his eyes, before taking a deep breathe and continuing. "in you when I was down. Don't forget, it's okay to cry. It's not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength. Holding in emotions hurts more than letting them out. So let them out. It's okay to admit that you care." Again Tony sniffed and wiped his eyes. "Dear Bruce, I want you to know that no matter what, I'm glad I hung around to get debriefed. But I am so sorry that you have lost another person in your life. But I don't want you to fall into depression. I want you to dive back into life. Love again. Save the world some more. Live now, while you still can. Make the best of what you've got. Live for me. I love you Bruce. You made my last 3 weeks the best of my life. I wish I'd found you sooner. But I am glad I got to spend time with you, no matter how short. Don't forget, but move on and know that I'll always be with you." Tony stopped to put the paper back in his pocket. "Macey taught us so much. About how life is to short. How you have to live whilst you can. To live, love and laugh. Because the future isn't set in stone. You can't control how long you've got in this life. But you can control what you do with the time you got. We won't forget her lesson to us. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever. And we certainly won't be forgetting Macey anytime soon." And then Tony walked back to his seat next to Steve and cried. He wasn't the only one. Steve had buried his head in his hands. Clint had silent tears streaming down his face. Thor was silently sobbing. And Natasha, who hadn't slept all week, who had stayed by Macey's bedside 'til the very end, was sobbing her heart out. She stood and left the church. But just as she reached the doors she turned and said,

"Bye bye Macey." She then ran out of the church doors followed swiftly by the others.


	7. Epilogue

Epilogue

It had been exactly a year since Macey's funeral and Bruce was walking home towards Stark Tower, thinking of her when he saw her. Macey. But it wasn't her, it couldn't be her. She was gone. Somebody slammed into her, causing her to drop her bags of shopping, and Bruce, without thinking, rushed to help her.

"Thanks." She smiled as he picked up her bags.

"No problem. What's your name?"

"Casey." Bruce thought back to Macey's letter, how she had asked him to love again. And he took the plunge.

"Hi Casey. I'm Bruce. Need help carrying your shopping home? You got a lot of it."

"Thanks that would be nice."

By the time they got to her apartment he had asked her out to dinner and they had a date for Sunday night. Walking into the living room of Stark Tower in a sort of trance, he flopped down on the sofa next to Tony.

"Hey Bruce, where ya been?" Tony asked, all interested because Bruce was never late back.

"I gotta date."

The shock on Tony's face was soon replaced with sheer joy.

"Yay! Oh my god! Where is everyone?! First I got married, then Clint and Natasha! Now your one step closer to getting married!"

Bruce sighed , the others came running in, thinking that someone was being murdered.

"What's going on?" Natasha had guns at the ready, but, seeing that nobody was attacking them put them down.

"Bruce has got a date!" Tony was practically singing.

"Really?" Natasha slapped Clint upside the head and said,

"That's great Bruce. I have some news too." Everyone looked at her in interest. "I'm pregnant." She said it just as Pepper came in the room waving a blue test strip. They looked at each other in amazement. Then they laughed and hugged each other.

"Well I guess now is the moment to mention I'm bringing Jessica round to meet you all." Steve said going shy.

"We're finally gonna get to meet wonder girl?" Tony asked in mock shock. Then his face lit up.

"Bruce's new girlfriend could come round then too! What day Bruce?"

"Sunday-" Before he could finish his phone rang. It was Casey. He picked up and asked if she minded meeting his crazy apartment mates.

"Are you kidding? That would be great!"

So it was arranged.

Miracles happen in the strangest places and in the strangest of ways. The miracles aren't often big things, they're the little things in life. The passing conversations of strangers. The sudden desire of a smoker to quit smoking. The storm clouds passing on and the sun brightening up the sky. A mother's ability to sense when her child is up to something or in danger. The courage of a random young woman in the face of a threat. So you see the miracles are all around us. But perhaps the most overlooked miracle is the miracle of life. Or maybe it is the miracle of how no matter what happens mankind continues. Throughout plagues and droughts, grief and fear. Their resilience, their will to survive. But thinking on it perhaps it is the miracle of love most overlooked in this world. A parents love for their child. Love between the unlikeliest of people. Love at first sight.


End file.
